The introduction of Microsoft Corp’s Windows Terminal Server software for NT 4.0 should give the Windows-based terminal market a much wanted boost (CI No 3,433). Manufacturers of the terminals have welcomed the introduction of the much awaited software which enables multi-user access to NT 4.0 across a heterogeneous network. According to terminal and thin client operation, Boundless Technologies Corp, the terminal market has been sluggish over the past year, but in the last month or so as the Terminal Server, code-named Hydra started to emerge, the market has started picking up again. Boundless spokesman Derek Holloway said people have been putting off buying terminals until they knew they could get hold of this. And according to Network Computing Devices Inc’s Mike Beckett, multi user NT is a real alternative to Unix. The Terminal Server has just been released to manufacturing and should be available by the end of next month. Microsoft has been unveiling the products specifications and requirements at a series of events across the world. According to Microsof’s Frances Raey, users need a 32-bit Pentium or Alpha-based server with 32Mb of RAM to get up and running, and then an additional 4-12Mb of RAM per user on the client systems. But Sony Network Development Manager, Andrew Tidd, one of the early users of the new software says Microsoft is being optimistic with its memory specifications, and commented: We don’t particularly like the way Microsoft does its sizing. He says that realistically organizations should have 64Mb of RAM to start with, and then 8-16Mb of RAM per user. And the product is not currently much good without the presence of Citrix Systems Inc’s MetaFrame software, he says. Citrix co-developed the product with Microsoft, and has launched MetaFrame at the same time as Terminal Server. It enables users to carry out server and load balancing and establish server farms. Tidd explains that the best way to use Terminal Server is with a server farm, ensuring there are lots of small processor machines controlling the server. There is then no single point of failure, protecting systems from total fall over. The capabilities in the new software, which Raey says Microsoft developed so it didn’t miss out on a market opportunity, will be available in the forthcoming NT 5.0 release.
